Pat's Claims Analysed (continued ..)

Arbiter Registration for Gabriel Mirza

Pat claims that Gabriel Mirza had to be registered as a National Arbiter to avoid problems for a Romanian tournament organiser. Gerry argued that he should complete the same ICAA qualification process as applied to previous National Arbiters.

It is clear that Gabriel had not completed the ICAA process before going to Romania. It is also clear that the ICU Executive were not aware of this in advance.

The ICU Executive went ahead and completed the registration with FIDE.

Gerry in his rebuttal article points out that the Romanian Tournament only required two arbiters and actually listed four including Gabriel. On that basis the Romanian tournament had more than enough arbiters.

Verdict: No problem, literally no problem.

The Signature

Just for good measure Pat throws in a complaint about Gerry adding Andrew Kildea's signature on FIDE application forms which "came to light when Andrew on inspecting the documents noticed his signature appended".

In fact the documents were sent only to Andrew and the covering email said "I have taken the liberty of using your electronic signature from previous applications to make it a bit easier for you". This was done so Andrew would not have to print and sign seven pages and then scan them back in to pdf format again.

Verdict: No good deed goes unpunished.

Pat's Handling of these Allegations

Pat indicates in his letter that his allegations in relation to the Ennis Congress dated back to May. Yet he never raised them with Gerry or the MCU between then and the August Executive meeting. The no confidence motion was not on the agenda.

The obvious conclusion is that Pat waited to ambush Gerry with these allegations at the meeting.

In his reply to the MCU Pat says he is satisfied that there was no breach of Article 13 since Gerry was given a right of reply before the vote.

The last sentence of Article 13 says "In exercising these and other functions, The Executive shall ensure that the requirements of natural justice are observed before exercising its powers."

Can Pat really believe that making these allegations without warning and asking Gerry to reply on the spot meets these requirements? Does he actaully believe that there is no need to investigate if these allegations are in fact true?

On Article 6 he says that Gerry left of his own accord. After the vote of no confidence and being asked to leave!!!

Feel free to make up your own mind on that logic.

Circulating the Letters

The following quote is the second general principle listed in the new Disciplinary Procedure being proposed by the current ICU Executive.

5. All matters of discipline will be dealt with in a manner that protects the dignity and privacy of the person against whom allegations are made.

Pat has circulated unproven and unsubstantiated allegations against Gerry Graham to pretty much every club in Munster and Leinster!!!!

Verdict: Enough said, draw your own conclusions on whether you want the ICU run this way for another year.